Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 189, No. 4 — page 159: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

—— THE OFF dressing case had been secured by the slash- ing of the latter article of luggage! The safe in the library had been opened by knocking off the dial and driving the spindle in so as to wreck the combination and permit the door to open. And there- from everything of value belonging to Mrs. Pyle and Tarda Rehne had been removed. Further, some three hundred dollars in cash had been abstracted from Mrs. Pyle’s desk! All in all, a very pretty job. Mrs. Pyle swung upon the servants. ‘““Why didn’t some of you stay here to watch the house?” she demanded. Where- upon they looked stupidly, half guiltily at each other. Beasley said: “ You told me to come, madam. And I guess we were all too ex- cited to think about it. Then, I expected Trent would be here right away.” “Where is Trent now?” Beasley shook his head. “I couldn’t say, madam. He ought to be here now, sure.” “Telephone the police at once,” Mrs. Pyle ordered. While Beasley hastened to obey, the mis- tress idly tried the door of a vacant guest room close at hand. The door, ordinarily left unlocked, did not give. So Mrs. Pyle turned the key and looked casually with- in. Her eyes bulged at what she saw! For, stretched limply on the floor, blood clotting over a wound above his right temple, lay Trent! _ “Good Heaven!” Mrs. Pyle cried. “Trent—Trent! He’s been murdered! Beasley, call the police, the doctor!” Guests and servants crowded forward, but Beasley having hastily summoned the officers, appeared and held them back. “Don’t disturb anything!” he said. “Wait! Maybe he’s not dead!” The others fell aside and the gardener knelt beside the butler, felt for his heart. Then he said: ‘“ Get some water, some whisky—quick! He’s alive!” Trent stirred as the hot liquid trickled into his throat; five minutes later, he sat up weakly with his head against Beasley’s knee. At that moment, Chief Perry of the Hinsdale police, entered the house accom- CHANCE. 629 panied by Captain Schmidt and Detective Sergeant Williams, III. OBVIOUSLY, the first step on the part of the police officers was to obtain Trent’s story of what had occurred. And, after more liquid stimulant coupled with a quar- ter hour rest during which the others wait- ed with what patience they could muster, the butler began: “IT ’ad been in the town, sir,’ he ad- dressed Chief Perry, “to place orders for supplies, sir. On my return, I ’ad almost reached the ’ouse, sir, when I observed an airplane over the estate. It seemed to me to be in trouble, sir. And, sure enough, as I watched, it came wabblin’ down. “I saw that it would be somewhere on the links, sir, and so I ’urried as fast as I could. A motor car with several persons— men—in it went past me just then and when I arrived at the ’ouse, I found the car there before the door. There was a man on the porch and ’e says: ‘Ah!’ ’e says, ‘ you are Mrs. Pyle’s butler, I take it.’ I tells im as ’ow I am and ’e says: ‘ She wants you inside at once,’ ’e says. “So I 7urries in with ’im behind me. And no sooner am I inside the “all, sir, than I gets a crack on the ’ead, sir. At least, I expect that was what ’appened.” Trent put his hand gingerly to the spot where Beasley had applied a cold compress. The chief asked: “‘ Was that the last you remember until you came to, here, a short time ago?” “That was all, sir. ‘Ow I came in this room, I ’ave no idea, sir.” Perry looked at his brother officers; saw that the thing was as clear to them as to him. To Mrs. Pyle, he said: “It is quite simple, Mrs. Pyle. Your aviator pulled a fake crash merely to attract your attention while his pals watched for him to drop and rushed the house instantly. They probably have been keeping tab on the place for some time and picked an hour when there were no men about except Beasley and pos- sibly Trent.” Mrs. Pyle murmured: “Of all things! Can you imagine?” ‘“ The next step,” continued Perry, “ is to Gomicbooks G (E(0)